The Boston Celtics won their first NBA title in 22 years, so where are they going to celebrate? No, not Disney World. Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen are heading to New York to sit down with David Letterman on Wednesday's Late Show (June 18, 11:35 pm/ET, CBS).The Celtics wrapped things up in Game 6 on Tuesday night with a 131-92 victory at the TD Banknorth Garden, the largest margin of victory ever in an NBA Finals series clinching game.UPDATE: Ratings are in, and the game scored 16.88 million viewers, the most watched Game 6 since 2000. Led by Sunday's Game 5 (17.39 million), the 2008 Finals make up the six most-watched programs in June (to date), averaging 15 million viewers. That's a 61 percent jump from last year's dead-boring Spurs rout of the Cavaliers.
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After a nail-biter of a Super Bowl, an overtime NCAA men's hoops final and a resurgence of ratings in the NHL Stanley Cup, the NBA Finals are poised to continue a fantastic 2008 sports year. This is your father's NBA Finals. And get your grandfather in the room, too. The Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics — two of the league's most storied franchises (and one of the most heated rivalries in all of sports) — are set to battle for league supremacy. Before Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls took over the world in the 1990s, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird owned the '80s, with the Lakers and/or the Celtics appearing in the NBA Finals every year, save one. Gone are the short shorts and the knee-high socks. This year, the Lakers' Kobe Bryant and the Celtics' Kevin Garnett lead a new generation of roundball phenoms battling for the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy. ABC analyst and former New York Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy sees the series going the distance. "Whoever wins i...
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The 2007 NBA season opens this week with a quadruple-double: four straight nights of doubleheaders on TNT (Oct. 30 and Nov. 1) and ESPN (Oct. 31 and Nov. 2).Tomorrow night’s opening game sees the Portland Trailblazers face off against the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs (Oct. 30, 8 pm/ET). After that, the Houston Rockets will take on the Los Angeles Lakers at 10:30 pm/ET. ESPN’s coverage on Halloween includes the Dallas Mavericks at the Cleveland Cavaliers (8 pm/ET) and the Seattle SuperSonics at the Denver Nuggets (10:30 pm/ET).On Thursday TNT has the Detroit Pistons at the Miami Heat, plus the Phoenix Suns taking on the Sonics. Friday’s ESPN games are the Washington Wizards at the Boston Celtics, followed by the Suns hosting the Lakers.Changes at the broadcast table include ex-Indiana Pacer Reggie Miller assuming a full-time game-analyst role for TNT, and ESPN’s hiring of former Knicks/Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy as an analyst."I was beginning to thin...
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England was funny. I like the U.K.'s dry, sarcastic wit. Now some people... well, let's be honest, all people wonder about Buddy and how he made the night round. Well, people, there are some things you don't see, and you didn't see Buddy come in and hand us his comedy manifesto. If you have a manifesto, I'm with you. Never piss off a psycho with a manifesto, that's my motto. Besides, he called ANT "Francis," which gave me and Kathleen something to laugh about the rest of the tour. Matt was probably my U.K. favorite; the little guy is funny.Minneapolis was the hardest city to pick from. All the comics were great. Well, maybe not all of them, but there were more great ones than we could advance. Next year I hope some of them have the money to fly to Australia, where the pickings are slim. I loved the way Doug Benson came back and parodied a high-energy Doug Benson. That kind of thing is a true comic move. Which brings up another topic: experienced comics. Many people are blogging, e-m...
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